MUTULA KILONZO MISLED KALONZO TO MAKE POLITICAL BLUNDER IN SPLITTING THE ODM-K

Commentary By Leo Odera Omolo

The Mwingi South MP Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka who for many years was my most favorite politician has made a big political blunder by parting company with Raila Odinga and causing rift and eventual big split in the original ODM-K

Kalonzo is still a very young man and if I were himself I could have accepted to play the second and even third fiddle and struggle on and put all the issues to their right perspective without jumping the ship.

His latest action in my view is an act of committing political suicide at the time when his stars were on the rise. He will definitely live to regret it .His chances of clinching the presidency of this country at his own with tribal support of the Kambas alone is doomed.

May be history is in the process of repeating itself. In the 1962-63, prior to the general election of June 1963 that ushered in political independence in this country, the late Paul Joseph Ngei, a Kamba, then fresh after graduating from prison, joined KANU and formed a radical wing of the party.

Ngei and his bands of radicals pressed hard for the sacking or removal of the late Mr.Tom Mboya from his secured position of KANU Secretary General. They argued that such important position should exclusively be held by someone who had suffered either in detention or imprisonment, but not a white collar politician like the late Mboya.

The late President Jomo Kenyatta used all the tricks in the books to maintain the unity within KANU, arguing that both the ex-detainees and former political prisoners and those who were not detained have a role to play together. But Ngei could not bear this.

Ngei and his radical groups bolted out of KANU and formed the defunct African People’s Party (APP), which was later derogatively christened Akamba Pick Pocket by the late Mboya. The members turned out to be exclusively Kambas, and even the late Elijah Omolo Ager, the only Luo official in the APP, quickly made an abrupt about turn and returned to the KANU hierarchy.

APP won all the parliamentary seats in Ukambani plus two Senate seats for both Machakos and Kitui districts, bringing its parliamentary strength to a paltry eleven. KANU won, defeating Moi’s KADU and Ngei’s APP with a landslide victory. Ngei quickly abandoned the APP and rejoined KANU.

But it took him a couple of years before he was to be fully rehabilitated back in KANU and given cabinet post.

I watched the KTN Television footage the other day and saw those paraded for the press conference were exclusively MPs from Ukambani. No leader of substantial nature from outside Ukambani was presented. This became clear to my mind that the Mwingi South MP was slowly sinking in the murky water of tribal politics

Of course during Ngei’s time, he had no credible challenger in Ukambani political supremacy apart from the late William Mbolu Malu, then KANU national treasurer. But Malu was considered as Mboya’s political surrogate and therefore lacked credible support in the region.

But in the case of Kalonzo Musyoka , Madam Charity Kaluki Ngilu is a formidable opponent of Kalonzo in the Kamba political derby!! And the unfolding political scenario in the ODM-K is just sending the wrong signal of an era of gross miscalculation on the part of Kalonzo.

In my opinion, the man to blame for Kalonzo’s downfall is Mr.Mutula Kilonzo. He should have stood firm as a mediator and reconciled Raila and Kalonzo. But instead, it was Mutula who started shouting about the myth of the existent of a leader who is pursuing guerilla tactics in ODM-k

Anyway there is still time for Kalonzo to reconsider the possibility of abandoning his ODM_K faction and rejoining the mainstream of ODM. I am sure he will be treated like a prodigal son returning back home.

ENDS
leooderaomolo@yahoo.com